Earlier, Robert Davis, senior vice president of U.S. operations for Mazda North American Operations, had sent a letter to Mazda employees about the delay Skyactiv-D 2.2-liter turbodiesel’s availability in the Mazda6. Certification testing is apparently taking longer than the company had hoped or expected. “I know we had discussed it being in showrooms before the end of the year, and everyone involved in the program is disappointed it will not be, but final certification testing — the results of which are looking encouraging — is taking longer than we had initially expected,” Davis wrote. Mazda has eschewed hybrids and electric power in favor of diesel engines as a path forward to better fuel economy.

Even without the diesel, the new Mazda6 is doing well, with June-August sales this year doubling last year’s figures and the Automotive News reports that the car is in short supply. To make up for not having the diesel, Mazda will be allocating U.S. dealers an additional 4,000 gasoline powered Mazda6 cars in the first quarter of 2014.

I suspect that Mazda does not have high sales projections for the Diesel version of the 6. Mazda is just not on too many buyers radars. Maybe its a different story with this crowd, but what do they have like 2% market share? I am considering a 6 with an MT as my next car so hopefully they get significantly more inventory on the ground. Tough to deal on a car when it only has 2 week supply on dealer lots.

Down here in Houston diesel costs at least thirty cents a gallon more than 87 octane– is it more on par with gasoline elsewhere? Seems like that cost premium would pretty much negate the mileage advantage.

Let’s see…based on the typical diesel, 10% more cash per gallon delivers 20 or 30% better mileage, and way more torque. Easy math. The tough part is justifying the cost premium of the engine; that takes a while to pay back. We’ll see what Mazda’s upcharge will be.

As I’ve argued on this site before, if the diesel versions of these sedans (like the Mazda 6 and Cruze diesel) end up either posting better numbers (0-60, 1/4 mile, mpg) and/or feeling more powerful in the real world then the diesel versions might end up becoming the enthusiast choice like the sport/ss/speed versions were in the past.

Until you factor in the price premium paid for the engine and the added maintenance costs and then you are at a wash, unless of course they don’t figure out a way around the 1200mi oil change interval and then you would be behind significantly.

Interesting video …. at about 0:40 it starts showing the cycles in the engine. Stellar animation, very well done, just funny how the intake stroke (shown with blue-ish fog in the intakes) occurs when the piston is going up :)

In practice, US diesel that consumers buy at their local service stations has sulfur levels that are below 10 ppm. The US also exports refined ULSD diesel to Europe, as the Europeans can’t refine the stuff fast enough to satisfy local demand.

Developing countries typically have much higher sulfur levels than the US. I hate to break it to you, but there is no US vs. the rest of the world fuel standard.